Jerusalem Mayor: Trump Is “Serious” About Moving U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said in a statement Monday that the Trump administration was serious about moving the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Barkat said he came to that conclusion from recent conversations he’d had with White House officials.

From those conversations, the mayor determined that President Donald Trump was a “true friend of Israel who keeps his promises,” The Jerusalem Post reported.

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“We’ll help the U.S. government use its authority (and provide) all the necessary assistance to make the (relocation) of the embassy to Jerusalem as quick and smooth as possible,” he said.

The move would “send a clear message to the world that Jerusalem is the united capital of the state of Israel,” Barkat said.

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On Sunday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said talks about moving the embassy had begun, indicating that it could be a while before the actual move.

“We are at the very beginning stages of even discussing this subject,” Spicer said.

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Israel’s Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ze’ev Elkin said he welcomed the idea of Trump making the promise a reality, The Times of Israel reported.

The Palestinians have warned against moving the embassy, calling it a politically charged act, but the move would officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Other Middle Eastern countries have also warned that the move would be a huge setback to the regional peace process, but those kinds of warnings seemed not to alter Trump’s decision to relocate the embassy.

While former President Barack Obama betrayed Israel in just about every way imaginable, Trump appears to hold it in much higher regard.

The move, like many other things the Trump administration has promised, would be a sign of a new era.